In a shake-up of the upper echelons of city leadership, Apopka Mayor Nick Nesta ousted the finance director and interim city administrator as he restructures the administration.

Radley Williams, interim city administrator, and Finance Director Blanche Sherman were “separated from employment” and placed on administrative leave Friday, according to an email sent to city commissioners on behalf of the mayor by Joe Patton, human resources director. The email stated their leave would last until Thursday, their effective last day of employment with the city.

Patton’s email said the dismissals were “due to reorganization” and each was offered a six-week severance package. They have not yet accepted it, choosing instead to take time to review the offer as allowed by law.

Phone calls and messages left for Sherman and Williams on Tuesday were not returned.

Nesta did not want to comment on the dismissals Tuesday, but he briefly addressed it Monday evening during an hourlong Mayor’s Town Hall at City Hall.

“There was obviously some changes to the organization last week, I’m not going to address it more than that,” he told the dozens in attendance. “Feel free to say what you need to say but I won’t be answering any questions specific to the changes that happened last Friday.”

Williams joined the city in 2022 as recreation director, later taking the interim administrator role after Jacob Smith was fired early last year by then-Mayor Bryan Nelson. Nelson failed to get support last year from commissioners to put Williams in the role permanently in the wake of a social media kerfuffle over his qualifications. He was paid $241,055 annually.

Sherman joined the city as finance director after Gladymir Ortega resigned in August 2022 after serving in the post for a little over a year. She was paid $221,588 annually.

Nelson told the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday that Sherman had alleged in a November 2025 email that she was experiencing ongoing harassment and disrespectful treatment from Nesta. He said the information was retained by the city but not released publicly at that time.

“She sent me the letter only because she was afraid that he would try to have her removed from her position,” Nelson said.

Nesta had no comment on Nelson’s claims Tuesday.

Steven Montiero, the city’s public information director, said by email Tuesday that during the interim period staff is regrouping and responsibilities have been assigned accordingly. Nesta and senior staff have taken on some day-to-day responsibilities until the administrator position is filled, he said.

Easily elected, Apopka’s new mayor finds tackling problems far tougher

During the town hall meeting, Nesta talked about the city’s new organizational chart, which showed a chief financial officer position in place of the finance director — something he said would help the city plan better for the future.

“We’ve been very reactive but we can’t see what we’re doing next month, next year and five years from now,” Nesta said. “We need to be able to find trends and then plan that way — and we haven’t been able to do that.”

He noted two areas of the chart he said he was most excited about: enterprise project management and public advocacy/resolutions.

Public advocacy/resolutions will bring members of city departments with accountability and oversight together to handle residents’ direct issues — calling it “a concierge team.”

He said enterprise project management will help the city advance the more than $100 million in projects approved and allocated funds by current and former commissions that are stagnating.

“All of this stems and goes to accountability,” Nesta said. “If we don’t have oversight and accountability we’re not going to get anything done.”

Later in the meeting he offered residents the opportunity to comment or ask questions.

Phyllis Olmstead, a regular commenter at city meetings, said the chart “looks pretty” and she hopes the city embraces a customer service mode.

“Everybody’s got to buy into it, everybody’s got to smile and help people through it,” Olmstead said.

Leroy Bell, another frequent commenter at city meetings who backed Nesta in the election, questioned how the city would pay for new positions such as a chief of staff.

“What’s going to happen, who’s going to pay for this and are we going to do this the right way or are we going to continue to stay (with) the buddy system?” Bell asked the mayor.

Nesta emphasized that all hiring will continue to go through human resources and all salaries will be posted on a publicly available chart that will be regularly updated.

As far as funding, he said about 760 positions were in the last budget but only about 660 were filled, so the city has the funding.

“We’ve got to be a dynamic city that pivots quickly, and that’s something that this chart helps to build out,” Nesta said. “It’s not going to be built tomorrow, it’s not going to be funded tomorrow … but as we navigate and slowly build towards what a proper organization should like, this is it.”